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JERUSALEM-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will ask Israel's cabinet on Sunday to approve a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, the wife of an Israeli soldier held captive by the Lebanese guerrilla group said on Tuesday.Karnit Goldwasser, whose husband Ehud and fellow army reservist Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah in a July 2006 border raid that triggered a 34-day war in Lebanon, spoke after meeting Olmert."The deal, as he promised me, will be brought for a vote on Sunday," she told Israel's Channel Ten television. "I very much hope the ministers ... will make the decision to bring Udi and Eldad home."There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government.Through a U.N.-appointed German mediator, Israel has offered to release five jailed Lebanese guerrillas in exchange for the soldiers, security sources said.Hezbollah has been tightlipped on progress in the indirect negotiations but a Lebanese political source said last week that "final touches" were being put on a swap deal.Israel's military rabbinate announced this week it was studying intelligence assessments that Goldwasser and Regev did not survive their abduction, and may declare them dead.Such a move could draw pressure on Olmert from his defense chiefs to offer Hezbollah only the bodies of Lebanese fighters held in Israel, rather than live prisoners-even at the risk of ruining the deal.To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
